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PITTSBURGH – This is a strange, new recipe that brought the Devils back to .500 on this season-opening, nine-game road trip. They allow plenty, and score more.

“We had to score 11 goals in two games. Sometimes you have to do that to be successful,” Brent Sutter said after the Devils (3-3) beat the Penguins 5-4 last night. “We want to make sure we know our responsibilities, but we also want to create offense.

“We found a way to get a win.”

The wild evening turned a final time when Arron Asham broke the tie with 9:22 left. Sutter’s squad has yielded an unDevil-like nine goals in its two straight victories, but has managed to break a third-period tie with the final goal each time.

“The fact that we’re scoring goals is a great sign,” goalie Martin Brodeur said. “We’ll take this, back to .500. We’ve scratched the first six games, and now we’ll try to get ahead.”

They will have that chance tonight when they visit the 4-1 Flyers.

Jay Pandolfo put the Devils in front 6:46 into play, hitting the short corner over the glove of Marc-Andre Fleury. Pandolfo’s linemate John Madden increased his team lead with his fourth goal of the season at 9:58, ripping a rocket past Fleury, again on the glove side from the right circle.

The Devils’ two-goal lead didn’t last the period. Maxime Talbot started the Penguins comeback at 15:58 with his team-leading fourth goal, steering home Ryan Whitney’s right-point set-up, and Devils defenseman Karel Rachunek was playing without a stick. Gary Roberts then tied it at the 17:48 in the first period on the Penguins’ first power play, deflecting Sergei Gonchar’s point shot off Rachunek and past Brodeur.

The sides split another four goals in the second period, all on the power play, the Devils benefiting from one Penguin wipe out, and the allowing of one disputed New Jersey goal. Sergei Gonchar connected first 52 seconds in on a routine right-point shot waved at by Mark Recchi. Travis Zajac answered when his steer from deep right went in off Fleury’s glove at 6:57 on the second of six straight Devils power plays.

The locals grew restless when, in a case of line-changing chaos, Evgeni Malkin’s apparent 2-on-0 goal was disallowed because Sidney Crosby was in front of the benches, mixing it up with Dainius Zubrus, giving the Penguins too many men on the ice. The Devils squandered that advantage, but they still had another chance, which Zajac converted in a controversial goal. Zach Parise tapped the puck in front that sat behind Fleury and Brian Gionta kicked Fleury’s pads and helped shove him into the net as the goalie tried unsuccessfully to cover the puck. It eventually was knocked home by Zajac to prompt a shower of debris from the stands, as Fleury dislodged the net in protest.

The penalty parade slowed in the third, and Asham put the Devils back in front, 5-4, with 9:22 left. Patrik Elias prevented an icing call, and from the right circle, Parise found Asham at the left doorstep.

“It was a see-saw battle,” Asham said. “That second period was crazy. I’ve never been a part of a game like that.”